Thursday, September 25 is Remember Me Thursday™ – Join the Candle Lighting Ceremony in Honor of Pets Who Have Lost Their Lives Worldwide

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It’s not something we like to think about, but literally thousands of precious animals will be euthanized across the world in the brief amount of time it takes you to read this post. It is heartbreaking, unfair, and very difficult for those of us that love animals to comprehend, but the fact is, it happens. But rather than harp on the ethics of it all, I ask for your help, enthusiasm, and dedication to helping make a difference by joining the Remember Me Thursday™ candle lighting awareness campaign on Thursday, September 25th with rescues and organizations worldwide to honor those animals that lost their lives without finding a forever home and to help find ways to increase adoptions for the millions of animals who still need a good home.

So, just what is the Remember Me Thursday™ Awareness Movement and how can you be a part of it? The first Remember Me Thursday™ took place last year on September 26 and was the brainchild of Michael Arms, the President of the Helen Woodward Animal Center. Already credited for creating both the “International Pet Adoptathon” and “Home 4 the Holidays” campaigns, Mike wanted a global event in honor of those compassionate and dedicated people working in animal welfare who are forced to take the lives of the pets they love. He felt that by lighting a candle for all those orphan pets, that it would be a way for people to let the world know how much they love them, that they weren’t forgotten, and that the awareness could help in increasing pet adoptions.

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The cat in this picture is our Kizmet who we rescued in 2012. It is heartbreaking to think had we not adopted him, that his precious life may have ended…

The event now takes place annually on the fourth Thursday of September with animal lovers and animal welfare organizations across the globe uniting with a Remember Me Thursday™ pet candle-lighting ceremony. The candles, lit on the exact same day across the world, will honor the millions of pets who lost their lives without the benefit of a loving home and shine a light on the millions of healthy pets who are still awaiting adoption. The Remember Me Thursday™ global awareness campaign encourages individuals to light a candle this day (literally or virtually) and to opt to adopt, reducing the millions of orphan pets euthanized each year.

139 countries united last year to support the movement, with over 100,000 individuals around the globe holding candle-lighting ceremonies of their own, spreading the message through social media or by visiting the Remember Me Thursday™ website and lighting a virtual candle and it is my hope we can help break that record this year by having all of you take the pledge to share the message and light a candle of your own.

Facebook Profile Photo_LargeIt’s so easy to participate – most of us have some sort of social media presence such as Facebook or Twitter, and one of the things you can do is change your profile pictures to the Remember Me Thursday™ icon on this Thursday (just save the image I have provided as a jpg and you will be good to go) and encourage others to do the same.

You are also more than welcome to share the compelling photo I created below featuring my sweet rescue Jazmine and the candle she will be sharing on Thursday. Just make sure that you use #LIGHTFORPETS to share your thoughts and feelings about the importance of pet adoption and encourage others to spread the word about Remember Me Thursday™ in your status update. The whole point of this is to get it to go viral. Don’t just post – post and ask for an animal loving, chain reaction share fest.

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Our rescue, Jazmine, lights up our home with joy and love each and everyday and that is why I have chosen her to act as our ambassador to light a candle on behalf of Remember Me Thursday™.

You can also go to the Remember Me Thursday™ site at remembermethursday.org to find out what rescues and organizations are holding special events, or to find press materials to host a candle lighting event in your own town including all kinds of great graphics to download and share. You will also be able to light a virtual candle on their Remember Me Thursday™  candle gallery  on Thursday, so there really is no excuse at all not to participate – from the smallest gesture to the largest, every little bit helps and I do believe it is the least we can do to honor those that we have lost in vain. It is also a way to thank the success stories and be grateful for all the adopted animals that have brought love, companionship, and joy into our lives.

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Photo courtesy of Cheyenne Ellis

There will also be several animal loving celebrities, behaviorists, and athletes who will come together to light candles, acting as luminaries to lend their voices for the event, including Katherine Heigl, official spokesperson, as well as Alan Cumming, Diane Keaton, Kristin Chenoweth, Kathy Najimy, Kristin Bauer van Straten, Eric Roberts, Ian Somerhalder, Sara Rue, Beth Stern, Carrie Ann Inaba, Anze Kopitar, David Backes, Jeff Carter, Mark Buehrle, Jackson Galaxy and Tamar Geller.

With their help and voice, along with yours, let’s make this a Thursday to Remember. And please be sure to stop back to visit Zee and Zoey’s on Thursday. I will be sharing an extra-special animal loving interview with celebrity luminary, Eric Roberts, that you absolutely won’t want to miss. In the meantime, please take a look at the official Remember Me Thursday™ campaign video featuring the inspiring song “It Will Be Me” by Kristin Chenoweth from her album “As I Am” on Sony Masterworks.

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  1. Pam Bushnell says:

    I will be adding this event to my Commission comments and will light a candle myself in honor of this worthy cause.

  2. thanks so much for the reminder. We participated last year and will be sure to do so again this year.

  3. We purr for the day that we don’t have to have days like Remember Me. Though we know that’s probably wishful thinking.

    Our candle will be lit this Thursday in remembrance.

  4. mariodacat says:

    Great post as usual, and we’ll try to remember and join you Thursday.

  5. Thank you for letting us know about that special day ! We didn’t know it, and we see on the website that Swiss organizations haven’t join the event. Our candle will glow on Thursday ! Purrs

  6. da tabbies o trout towne says:

    ♥♥♥♥♥

  7. Sharing this on social media.

  8. thanks for the reminder….hopefully someday we can look back and know that we don’t need this anymore

  9. Sue Brandes says:

    Shared on FB.

  10. Thanks for the reminder about this. We had forgotten this was coming up soon!

  11. Thanks so much Deb. Will be joining you!!

  12. This is one of my favorite causes especially this year thanks to my shelter muse Angel Gray Boy.

  13. Carolyn says:

    Thanks for the reminder, Deb. I hope you throat infection is better today xx

  14. meowmeowmans says:

    What a wonderful event. We will be remembering our sweet cats who came before.